Volunteers join to create new playground at Evans Elementary in Yeadon

The fourth grader, along with his younger sister Jada, helped paint the walkway leading from Evans Elementary School to its new playground, a project that was built in a matter of hours, aside from a couple days before of planning and clearing out space.

“It’s very creative,” Austin said. “And the way the structure is it’s very well built.”

Thanks to a partnership with KaBOOM!, a non-profit organization with the aim of providing all children with nearby play spaces and an active life, Evans was able to get its new playground thanks to the work put in by a volunteer group consisting of staff, students, Yeadon residents, volunteers from KaBOOM! and sponsor Foresters, an international financial services provider that has invested over $10 million with KaBOOM! since 2006.

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With rain pouring down after the work was finished, Joel’s younger sister Jada stood inside the school. She said that the new playground looked “better, a lot funner.” She thanked KaBOOM! for making it happen, while the wall nearby was fluttered with messages on Post-It notes from hundreds of other students echoing the same sentiments.

A full view of the picture showed that the Post-Its were arranged to spell out “Thank You!”

The scene wasn’t much different a month before, when over 250 volunteers gathered to build a new playground for Park Lane Elementary in Darby, thanks once again to help from KaBOOM!, Park Lane’s sponsor United Healthcare and Darby residents.

Partnering with KaBOOM! helped William Penn School District get two new playgrounds, but the idea’s origins dated back to before KaBOOM’s involvement, and included all six of the district’s elementary schools.

“The project began with teachers wanting to get new swing sets for the schools,” Park Lane Principal Dr. Dawnee Watson-Bouie said. “So the William Penn School Board formed a playground committee and they started working to get playgrounds at the different schools in our district.”

With school board director Jennifer Hoff serving as chair of the committee, teacher Carol Poplawaski serving as youth engagement chair and Jamil Allen serving as community engagement chair, the goal of getting each school a new playground only grew.

With two schools down, and four to go, Walnut Street Elementary is next on the list to receive a new playground sometime in mid-October.

But for right now, Evans students and Yeadon residents can get acclimated to the school’s new playground. It was officially opened Tuesday at 5 p.m.

“It’s a huge win for us as a school and the community,” Evans Elementary principal Dujuana Ambrose-Dessau said on Saturday. “

“It is a perfect opportunity for us to really show that we think play and physical activity is important. Ambrose-Dessau added. “Kids and families that weren’t here today will be blown away when they do see it. It’s a huge win for a whole lot of people and a whole lot of reasons.”

And as for all the support the school received from the community and beyond ...

“I’m very humbled that it happened,” Ambrose-Dessau said. “They all came through.”